Original story by - - Arthur Laurents

Here is the original story of a true original
the celebrated and internationally renowned director
playwright and screenwriter Arthur Laurents
whose creative genius continues to energize American stage and screen today. Say his name
and images of West Side Story
Gypsy
Anastasia
The Turning Point
and The Way We Were appear. Laurents' highly praised memoir is a dazzling portrait of his life
as he recounts the great moments
the trials and the joys of his incredible career. He takes us into his world
peopled with the creative artists
directors
actors and personalities who came of age in the theatre and in Hollywood after WWII. Later
back in New York
he writes about jump-starting Barbra Streisand's career by casting her in I Can Get It for You Wholesale. He writes about the creation of Gypsy with Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim. And he writes about coming together in a complex
fraught collaboration with his three old pals
Jerome Robbins
Leonard Bernstein and Sondheim for West Side Story. Throughout
Laurents is funny
fierce
and frank
a life recounted as richly as it was lived.
This is a historic work. A 'must' for show biz mavens.
LIZ SMITH
Newsday & Syndicated